LAND VALUES AND WAGES.
Sir,—Henry Georgo says somewhere in hi« sophistical writings something to this effect:-. . "As population increases tho price of land rises and wages fall." Henry George and his followers, Messrs. "Withy and i'owlds, x do not—perhaps they cannot—distinguish between town lots and rural land. It is very easy to prove the rottenness of Henry . George's "theories. Population has increased both in London and Auckland, land has' 1 risen in price, but wages have not fallen, j 'but risen, in both these cities. Population , has increased in England, but the price of if; > rural land, as a whole, has gone down, but ■ tho. wages of agricultural labourers hive risen about 50 per centum. In the Farmer,.! and Stock Breeder of August 24, 1911; pub+ lished in London, there are farms adver< ,/' tised for sale at a very low figure, lower, is;', fact, than 30 years ago, e.g., "Five miles. from A3hford, two miles from railway sta-• tion, good house and outbuildings, price £1\ 10s per acre." Another: "Essex, 769 acres/ productive land, buildings, house, etc., price £lUpcr acre.;" and so I could quote on ad iajisuuro, showing most conclusively that . Henry George's theories aro founded on ,' false bases, and consequently his followers in New Zealand are falso teachers, deluding '■ a gullible public, who unfortunately fort,-. this Dominion, know more about racing and}. v horses than they do about the principles thai should underlie all our laws. New Zealand iundoubtedly owe* its present prosperity tot'. ~ its settlers, many of whom have to world ' from four a.m. to eight p.m. to make ends] meet. To put heavier taxes on them would mean ruin to them, and also to labourers inV' towns. The price of rural lands in England? has gone down, owing to tho competition 08 India (wheat), New Zealand, Australia,. * Argentine {wool, mutton, beef), etc., etc.* ami excessive taxation on our rural lanes'; > would result in the decay of our agricultural Eursuits, and the price of produce would) ave to be increased. It would be thai killing of the goose to get at the golden egg. ■ y ',7'v i :: Geokge Wnss. ; < ■■ Bombay. ■/. . ..'■/,. \■■ r^^^f'WM __„ ' .
LAND VALUES AND WAGES.
New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14849, 28 November 1911, Page 4
NZME is the copyright owner for the New Zealand Herald. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons New Zealand BY-NC-SA licence . This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of NZME. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
This newspaper was digitised in partnership with Auckland Libraries and NZME.
Log in